Orkney Archive - get dusty

Friday, 11 August 2017

We have a new selection of pre-produced photographic prints for sale in the Orkney Archive, which cover many different subjects. Some of them are much larger than the usual 8x6 inches in size, so our price of £4 is a real bargain.

[Please note we do not have multiple copies of these items for sale. If you wish to buy a copy of any of these images and the pre-produced ones have been sold, you can still order copies from us at the normal prices. Please see our normal Production Price List below and email archives@orkney.gov.uk to order.]

For all the boat-lovers out there, here are a few with a definite marine theme.

We love this image below of the 1st Destroyer Flotilla illuminated in Kirkwall Bay. This photograph was taken by Tom Kent on the 25th May 1911.

TK 158 Kirkwall Bay

Four years later in 1915 Margaret Tait describes a similar sight: "The moonlight is very welcome these war times, as the authorities can't make one put out the moon as they can the lights in the windows. I went down to see the ships in the Bay and I was told there were more ships coming and going to K'wall at present than comes and goes to the ports of London. It was a lovely sight the ships stretched right across the bay as far as Finstown and were all lighted up making it look like a miniature town."

The above photo is mounted on hardboard, so costs slightly more at £7.

Our usual costs for photographic reprints are:

The Photographic Archive holds more than 60,000 images relating to Orkney and its people, with the earliest dating from the nineteenth century.

The images are a priceless record of changes that were occurring throughout the UK as well as in Orkney. They show changes in the working and social lives of the people, changes in farming methods, the effects of two World Wars and the huge influx of military personnel, industries that have largely disappeared and much more.

So pop round to the Orkney Archive during our normal opening hours and have a browse, you never know, your perfect photo could be printed and already waiting for you!

Monday, 19 June 2017

We are currently exhibiting some material from the Minervian Library with our neighbours across the road in the Orkney Museum.

The Minervian Library is a collection of stories written by children in the 1860s. Maria, Clara, Alfred and Malcolm Cowan and their cousin Isabella Bremner were aged 6 - 14 when the library first originated in 1865 and spent their summer holidays in Tankerness House (now the Orkney Museum) in Kirkwall and the Hall of Tankerness in the parish of St. Andrews. The Minervian Library consisted at one point of 100 volumes and was a functioning lending library amongst the children's friends and acquaintances.

The stories were a mixture of fairy tales, plays, and news items. The children gathered up all the paper and jotters they could find and bound them together with stitches, or tape or even pins (see below).

Some of the paper was very thin and has resulted in most of the collection now being quite fragile.

But this industry of creating, not only the stories, but also the books themselves has resulted in a wonderful variety of designs and sizes.

Hand-painted illustrations were sown into jotters

Covers were made from hardened lace

Some illustrations were cut out and stuck on

The stories vary in length from 1 page to 80 pages and are often about love and heroic deeds. One example is entitled, "To Gain His Love"

“But,”
asked Flora, her younger sister, “how do you know that his Papa & Mama
destine him for you?”

“I care
not. I shall try ‘To gain His Love,’ myself & you need not attempt it, for
you will miserably fail.”

“How,”
cried the indignant Flora, starting up, “am I then so much less beautiful than
you, that you only will be loved by every body!” Then cooling down she added,
“And forgive me Amelia, you are eldest & his heart is by right yours, I
mean, by right yours sooner than mine. But you are only 18 & I am but one
year younger, therefore all difference shall be set aside, in age, & we
shall both try our best. Should you succeed I yield without a [?], Should I,
why then you must do the same.”

Chapter II

“To
Gain His Love,” thought Amelia, “I will visit the poor, dress very simply, read
no novels, & will not flirt any more.”

“To
Gain His Love,” thought Flora, “I will remain as I am, that he may not love
anything superficial in me. If he takes me at all, he must take me as I am,
& for myself.”

“I love
neither the one nor the other,” said Henry Malborough, two months after this,
“but in time I may. At any rate if I do marry I shall fix upon one or the other
of them. Lord Clive has an immense fortune, but I hope he will see my true
motive, when I come to ask for his daughter & not think I want her money.
For indeed, I do not, And Amelia & Flora must try to gain my love before I
try to gain theirs; for I am afraid I have a heart of stone & should not
otherwise be touched.

“Oh!
dear, I am very well, but my heart is sick,” said she with affectation.

“Why,
what great grief has befallen you?”

“Oh!
how could you, you naughty man!” cried she.

“How
could I what?” asked he in amazement.

“How
could you think I would feel so sorry & unhappy if anything had happened to
myself, instead of bearing up against it! But my heart is sick for that poor
cotter & his wife. I mean William Cove, whom I have just been to see, their
Eldest, only & beloved daughter is dying & really when they asked me to
come & see her I could

not
refuse, & when I gave her some costly grapes (which cost ten shillings the
bunch) & they found she could [cost] eat them, you should have heard
how they blessed me. It really quite repaid me for the pain I suffered, for I
assure you, I had a sick headache, when I went & though each step
occasioned pain, I could not refuse to go, Ah! no I knew my duty too well for
that!”

“At any
rate you praise yourself enough for it,” though he, then bidding her good day
he walked away.

Chapter IV

“Riding
alone,” cried Harry Malborough.

“Alone,”
cried Flora, for it was she, “yes I always ride alone in my father’s private
park. It doesn’t matter there you know.”

“No
more it does,” said he. “I hate all those formalities.”

“And so
do I heartily,” laughed Flora, “only you know One must attend to the fashions
of the time in a slight degree.”

“You
are quite right. By-the-bye do you ever visit the poor?” asked he.

“Yes,
but only when I think I ought, for I do not think any one would like to have
company forced upon them continually, I know I don’t, & I don’t see why the
poor should either!”

“Then
we’re sure to agree,” cried the lovely Flora with a silvery laugh “& I must
bid you good-bye, as it time[sic] to return to the house.”

“Now do
let me lead you there,” pleaded Harry, “you see it is absolutely needful your
horse is already jumping & starting.”

Now the
truth of the matter was that Harry wishing much to do as he asked was pinching
the poor creature with a pin.

“Well,”
said Flora modestly, “as it is wild, I will let you.”

And he
did.

Chapter V

Thus
for some time things went on. Which of the two Harry loved best will be now
seen.

“Do you
know, Flora,” said Harry, “I love you so much, that I could even make a formal
proposal to you. But you know I mean it - you know me well & I know you.”

Flora
blushed.

Amelia,
(who by the bye was listening at the keyhole), moved uneasily, “But she won’t
accept him,” though she, “Oh dear no, because she is too good for that.”

“Harry,”
said Flora, “does the Marquis, your father, know of this.”

“To be
sure, my Flora & your parents also.”

“Then Harry,
I-, I- but you know what I mean?”

“No I
don’t dearest, tell me.”

“Harry,”
she blushed, “I mean, that, - of course – I mean that I have ever loved you
dearly only – you – know – I didn’t know - how to say it.”

Harry
was in transports.

Amelia
rushed angrily in.

“You
bad, man, you naughty man, what right have you [man] propose to her in-

stead
of me. You bad girl, after all I have done, I have visited the poor, dressed simply,
& given up reading novels ‘to Gain His Love.’”

“The
wrong way,” said Harry.

“And
I,” said the happy Flora, “prefered[sic] to continue as I was, & not be
artificial ‘To Gain His Love.’”

“The
right way, my own Flora,” said Harry, “& indeed you have Gained my
Never-dying most Devoted Love.”

The End

A story written by Alfred Cowan, who was in later years to change his name to Baikie and inherit the Lairdship of Tankerness, is prefaced by this humble text:

"My dear readers, I hope you will not be angry at this because I am as yet a youth of 6 years old (7 next March, 8 the next), I am your dear Alfred Cowan."

The children also performed plays in the dining room which is now the exhibition room of the Orkney Museum.

The Hairy Drama - Beauty and the Beast

And they created news items such as this one about the weather:

[page 1]

"Weather report

The weather in the Orcades this weak[sic] has been terrific.
The gale of west winds has raged for the last few days with such violence as to
put an end to any communication between these Islands and the South. We regret
to state that accidends[sic] have been many a fat old lady has been caught up
and whirled across the Peerie Sea and deposited on the top of a pig sty at
the other side of Wideford Hill. It happen[n]ed to be an intensely dark
night [and the old lady went out u] and the old lady went for a
constituonal[sic] walk taking with her a lantern. The effects of this transit
through the air was so [intensely surprising?] that Profost Reid rushed out of his office
exclaiming eh boys siccan[sic] a sight there’s a com[m]ic!! comick yourself,
screamed the old lady from upper stratum whereupon Bailie Reid being so
flabbergasted fainted away [away] on the spot and afterwards as soon as
he recovered his equimilibrium[sic] forwith[sic] indiked[sic] an epistle to the
editors of the “Round about St Magnus” enquiring[sic] if he or any of his
scientific correspondents

[page 2]

ever heard a speaking comick.

The poor old lady after the severe shocks was heard to
exclaim in a pathetic tone and voice “heck sirs! To think that I should take a
flee afore me time!”

The mistress of the farm came out and seeing the old lady
seated there she went up to her and kindly asked and hows[sic] your fair
boady[sic] which so exasperated the irritable old lady that she fierc[dy]ely
exclaimed you be blowed[sic] yourself and see how you like it."

*********************

If you are in Kirkwall, please do pop into the Museum for a look at the exhibition and some more transcripts of the stories. The exhibition will be there until the end of July, when it will be moved back here and into the Orkney Archive Searchroom for August.

Friday, 2 June 2017

The 200 Years of Diaries Exhibition is still on in upstairs and downstairs in Kirkwall Library, in the Archive Searchroom, the Orkney Room and in Stromness Library in the Warehouse Buildings. The exhibition contains over 500 diaries from the years 1800-2000 and was created by artist Dylan Stone.

Here are a couple more of our favourites for you today. One from October 1848 which you will notice is lacking in punctuation. This changes the meaning for each person reading it. See how you get on.

Wednesday 25 St. Crispin: "German and French lessons went for a walk after diner played a bit with Marion."
Thursday 26: "Walked to Seed green after dinner had tea there Freeman walked back with us after."
Friday 27: "Music lesson very wet Marion came to tea had the little tea things had tea by ourselves she went home after."

The second is from 1909 and describes a very normal week until a seemingly tragic event on Friday 5th March.

Archiver: It's just hard... Loving sandwiches so much and not being able to join in... I checked to see if we had anything relevant to post and there was nothing; just a few jam recipes and a misspelled reference to the parish of Sandwick...

James Douglas, the Earl of Morton, was imprisoned in the Bastille for three months in late 1746 according to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. He was detained alongside his servants, wife and family because he did not have any documents of residency. He seems to have been trapped in France until at least February 1747.

The archive hold a second letter wherein he requests that John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich aka The INVENTOR OF SANDWICHES, send him and his servants a passport. But not his wife and children.

Tuesday, 16 May 2017

We are pleased to be hosting the 200 Years of Diaries Exhibition in Kirkwall and Stromness Libraries this summer until 11th July. It has been created by artist Dylan Jonas Stone and invites viewers to walk through 2 centuries of diaries from 1800-2000.

We have all enjoyed reading them and have picked out our favourites. This letter is my favourite so far.

20 Novr 1838

Dr. Turnbull,

It is not without reluctance I
trouble you with this but I do so at the request of a Lady, & the wishes of
a Lady (especially a distressed one) is always a command with me.

I was at Mr W. Mathison’s last
Saturday Night & witnessed a painful family scene. Tom Farmer’s wife (who
is Mr Mathison’s Daughter) came [into] the kitchen, whilst Mathison & I
[were] in the parlour, & we heard her tongue going like a hurricane,
abusing poor Miss M. at a furious rate & alarming all the Neighbours –
among other elegant Expressions she called Miss M. “a damned Drunken Whore”!!
Miss M came into the parlour & complained to her Father, as the only
Protector she has, but to my surprise he also [abused her] and spoke very
harshly to her & accused her of being Drunk. Now she certainly did
appear to me to be a little
Elevated but I fear she is driven to it by the
crew she is among, & from Vixation.

An intriguing snapshot of a life in 1838 - Who was Miss M? Who wrote the letter? Did Dr. Turnbull help?

The exhibition enables the viewer to wander through every year of two hundred different people's lives: a boy scout writing everything he hears on the radio during WW2; a farmer seeing a car for the first time; all the films a teenager sees in the 1950s; an elderly woman in New England eating Thanksgiving dinner alone; a Belgian schoolgirl on a trip to Paris in 1906 who sees the headlines announcing the earthquake in San Francisco; the flight of schedule of an airline pilot from the 1960s and 1970s and a musician travelling to concert engagements around Europe in the 1980s.

The exhibition includes contributions from the Orkney community and from the Orkney Archive collection, from Thomas Stewart Traill's journal around war-torn France and Spain in 1814 to a Westray man's first trip abroad at the age of 54 in 1993.

We hope you will come in to look at the diaries if you visit Orkney this summer and let us know your favourite too. We will share some of your favourite diary entries on this blog for those of you who can't see the exhibition.

Monday, 8 May 2017

Time to don the deerstalker, press your lips to your pipe (a bubble one, of course) and fish out your magnifying glass, as we have a new mystery for you from The Balfour Blogger.

This is a short piece about a letter from the Balfour
Papers. It’s short because we have a fascinating letter about which we know
very little and we’re hoping that by throwing that little out to all of you, someone’s going to come back with some or all
the missing pieces of the jigsaw.

In Box 22, bundle 10, item 15, of the Balfour papers, there
is a letter from Mary Checkley at the Malt Shovel, Solihull, near Birmingham,
to Colonel Belford, Cork, Ireland.

I have a Husband in
your Regiment if living but have sent several letters but can get no answer
from him so must conclude he is dead – which if so, please to give me a line
and your petitioner will ever pray,

I am Sir Your most
Hble [humble] Serv, [servant]

Mary Checkley

I’ve rooted about in Google and have found lots of
references to the Malt Shovel at Solihull and it’s clearly an inndating back perhaps to the 17th
Century but have not yet found a history of the Inn and who might have owned it
in 1796, and what Mary Checkley’s connection to it is.

Similarly I’ve looked for Mary herself but other than
finding lots of Checkleys around the Midlands, both as a place name and a
surname, I’ve not found Mary herself or her husband, alive or dead.

I’ve not found Mr Checkley yet in the records of the North
Lowland Fencibles Regiment. He may be in future boxes, still to yield up their
many secrets, but he’s not obviously in boxes 1 to 21.

So …….. who is Mary? Who is her husband? Was he dead? Where
and when and under what circumstances? Or was he just a bad correspondent? The
Regiment was safe enough in Ireland, albeit illness might easily consume a man
in the late 18th Century British Army.

And how much concerned was Mary that he might be dead? Did
she mind? Was she bereft? Did she have another plan and her Checkley husband
was surplus to requirements? Did she have children needing their father home
again? What were her financial circumstances? Why had he taken the King’s
shilling and left?

She has an elegant and strong hand, if Mary herself wrote
the letter, and she expresses herself well, if baldly. She writes with some
maturity, but did she write the letter? She doesn’t quite get the surname Balfour
right, but even addressed to Colonel Belford, the letter gets to the Thomas
Balfour, and she knows she has to write to him at Cork.

These are the bare bones of it all. Can anyone help add to
the story? We would very much like to hear from you.

Monday, 24 April 2017

This year marks the 900th Anniversary of the death of Earl Magnus of Orkney. The Orkney Archive and Orkney Room have many sources of information in connection with Earl Magnus, some of which I will share with you below:

In Magnus Saga the Life of St Magnus, Earl of Orkney 1075-1116Palsson and Edwards sums up the story on the back page,
"The Norwegian's held sway in the most northerly areas of present-day Scotland for 600 years, from the 9th century to 1469. And in this earldom of Orkney, Magnus Erlendsson (St Magnus of Orkney), was in every way a central figure.
...His father fought on the Norwegian side at the battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066. He himself ruled as Earl of Orkney with his cousin Haakon, following an early life of piracy and Viking expeditions and a time living at the court of King Malcolm III of Scotland.
But this biography written in Icelandic in about 1250, is particularly concerned with the execution of Magnus which took place on the island on Egilsay in 1116 or 1117 and which led to his veneration in every part of the Scandinavian world, and to the building of the great cathedral in Kirkwall.
...St Magnus Day is still celebrated on the 16th April."

He is described as "a man of extraordinary distinction, tall, with a fine, intelligent look about him. He was a man of strict virtue, successful in war, wise, eloquent, generous and magnanimous, open-handed with money and sound with advice, and altogether the most popular of men." (p83 of Orkneyinga Saga The History of the Earls of Orkney Translated by Palsson and Edwards)

He offered himself as a martyr to Earl Hakon, when their joint rule fell apart, "'There's still one offer left for me to make', said Magnus, 'God knows that I'm more concerned with the welfare of your soul than with saving my life. For your own sake, have me mutilated in any way you choose, rather than take my life or else blind me and lock me in a dungeon'
I'll accept these terms', said Hakon, 'and make no further conditions'"
To the man told to kill him, Magnus said, "This is nothing to weep over, a deed like this can only bring fame to the man who carries it out. Show yourself a man of spirit and you can have my clothes according to the old laws and customs. ... Stand in front of me and strike me hard on the head, it's not fitting for a chieftain to be beheaded like a thief."
(p87-8 of Orkneyinga Saga The History of the Earls of Orkney Translated by Palsson and Edwards)

Magnus was killed and his bones left on Egilsay.

Traditions grew up around the place where he was slain. Ernest Marwick has collected a few which can be see in D31/37/1 Folder entitled St Magnus - Traditions and Pictures containing press cuttings, notes, pamphlets, photographs and correspondence here in the Orkney Archive:

"There was a legend that when Magnus was slain on Egilsay his blood stained the daisies red, and that in the place a lovely thornless rose grew which flowered each Christmas morning. If a leaf was plucked while the dew was still on it, it would cure black death and leprosy"

"That one will always find an open flower growing there."

Egilsay Kirk drawn by Dryden in 1894

﻿

On the instructions of his mother, Thora, Magnus' bones were moved from Egilsay to Birsay and buried there. They were probably taken by boat from Egilsay to Evie.

Ernest Marwick collected traditionsin St Magnus Folder reference D31/37/1 regarding resting-places of the body of St Magnus on the way from Evie to Birsay. From an interview with Mrs Matches of Brochlea, Birsay in 1972 he gained this story:

"There was a Mans Stone at Crowdue between eighty and a hundred years ago. Robert Harvey of Crowdue decided to break it up because it was near the old road, and something of an impediment to the traffic on the road. He was warned by auld Ibbie o Moosakelda to desist for it was a sacred stone. A splinter of it entered his hand between the thumb and forefinger and he died a week later of lockjaw."

In the John Mooney papers, reference D49/1/11, there is a bundle of correspondence and press cuttings received by him following the publication of "St Magnus, Earl of Orkney" in 1936. It includes a letter from J. Graham Callander, National Museums of Antiquities, Edinburgh regarding discoveries at Garth, Nether Brough; and mention of a symbol stone found at the Brough of Birsay, 22 May 1936.

"Magnus Saga" says: "The body of Earl Magnus was carried to Birsay and given burial at Christ Church, which Earl Thorfinn had built."

﻿

TK3036 Photo of Birsay Village

Then "Magnus' Saga" mentions the sanctification of St Magnus on St Lucy's Day, December 13th, over 20 years after his death by Bishop William and later still: 'After Earl Rognvald Kali, nephew of the Holy Earl Magnus, had come to power in Orkney and settled down, he had the ground-plan drawn up for St. Magnus' Cathedral in Kirkwall and hired builders for the work. The structure progressed rapidly and well; it is a remarkable building, on which great pains were bestowed, and later the holy relics of Earl Magnus were transferred to it. Many miracles continued to take place there. Nowadays it is the episcopal seat, the same that used to be at Christ Church in Birsay."

More traditions collected by Ernest Marwick in the St Magnus Folder D31/37/1:

"Sigurd Tandrisson was the name of a farmer who lived at Dale in Shetland. He became so mad and violent that he had to be sewn up in a cow-hide. He was brought like that to the shrine of St Magnus, and there he got back his wits and full health, and went away quite whole."

and from Mrs Matches again:

Birsay to Kirkwall

"The procession went by the Strathyre stane. They crossed through Greeny, and there was a resting-place between the Mill of Housby and the Loch of Sabiston."

St Magnus Stone

"This broken earth-fast stone marks, according to local tradition, the first resting place of the procession, when the relics of St Magnus were brought from Birsay to Kirkwall. It is in a field below the house called Strathyre in Birsay."

[Caption to photograph above, written by Ernest Marwick, D31/37/1]

Blessing the Stones"My old teacher, Miss Stanger of Wrangleha, who was a very careful body about her facts, often said that there was an old Birsay tradition that the stones that were set up to show the places where the body of St Magnus rested had oil poured over them and they were blessed. After that everybody looked on them as sacred and nobody would touch them."
From William Sabiston, Swartabreck, Birsay in 1968, "MANSEWAL (MANSE = MAGNUS; WAL = WELL) along public road not far from Mill Cottage on road to Wattle. Said to be a traditional resting place for the bearers of the remains St Magnus on the road to Kirkwall."

We currently have a small display of books which mention Earl or St Magnus in the Orkney Room. Please feel free to pick any up to look at if you are visiting. If you would like to see some archives during your visit just ask a member of staff in the Archive Searchroom who will show you the list. The Archive Searchroom is closed on Wednesdays, but there is still access to the Orkney Room.Magnus 900 - Research sources Part 2 - will cover Hymns, Bones, and Pageants.

Tuesday, 18 April 2017

It took me aaaaages to realise what this baffling advert was referring to. How mentally draining it must have been being a woman in the 1940s...and how annoying when there were LOADS of very Un-coy adverts about really gross things in nearly every issue of The Orcadian:

﻿﻿﻿

Flatulence!

Eww Warts!

Constipation!

"It just decays in your bowels..."

How are the words 'sanitary' and 'towel' worse than 'wart', 'bowel' or the phrase 'two pints of bile flowing freely'?

Thursday, 9 March 2017

Ha! It is always worth checking the copies of the Old Parish Registers as well as the indexes as they often contain extra information. Sometimes you learn the name of the bride's home farm or the groom's profession and you can often find the names of witnesses to baptisms and marriages.

Birsay's baptismal register of 1751 yields much more information to the family historian:

Septr 29th To George Anderson in Swaneyside (a scoundrall a knave a scrub a Rascall a Villain a cheat) a son called Andrew.N.B. he had been in the Northwest & has been three years in Wascra
(Wascra is a farm in Birsay)

Underneath the slur is written in another hand:

the above George Anderson is as honest, just, obliging man as any other man in this parish.

...which suggests either that the character of George Anderson divided opinion or that all the men in Birsay at that time were a bunch of scrubs.

I had come across the insults villain, scoundrall and knave before in the archives but not scrub. I looked it up in the Scottish National Dictionary for your information:

scrub /skrub / n a guy that think he's fine and is also known as a buster. Always talkin' about what he wants. And just sits on his broke ass

Wednesday, 1 March 2017

Our wonderful local studies section The Orkney Room is full to bursting of published information about Orkney. So much so, that we have been forced (forced, I tell you!) to keep some of its intended contents through the back. But all you have to do is ask our friendly Archive Searchroom staff for any of these titles and we will graciously retrieve them for you.

One of these periodicals is Northern Scotland, The Journal of the Centre for Scottish Studies. It was first published in December 1972 by the Aberdeen University Press.

And often contained articles and Orkney book reviews. In the very first issue the very first article is, "The Church in Orkney and Shetland and its relations with Norway and Scotland in the Middle Ages" by R G Cant. And the Orkney books reviewed were Orkney Natural History Society's "Stromness: late 19th century photographs" and "The Orkney Croft".

Volume 12 includes articles: "Shetland and the Greenland whaling industry, 1780-1872" by Richard J Smith and "The development of the fishery districts of Scotland" by J R Coull

Volume 18 includes articles: "Stone Circles: perceptions from inside and outside the ring" by Elizabeth Curtis

Over the years, the cover colour changed, but not the quality of content. And now..

Volume 7 of New Series includes this article: "The Orkney Islands and the European Economic Community in the 1970s" by Mike MacDonald

Now it is published by Edinburgh University Press and the new series is at it's 7th volume. The description inside the current volume we have for 2016 says, "established in 1972, Northern Scotland is a fully peer-reviewed publication with contributors, reviewers and referees drawn from a wide range of experts across the world. While it carries material of a mainly historical nature, from the earliest times to the modern era, it is a cross-disciplinary publication, which also addresses cultural, economic, political and geographical themes relating to the Highlands and Islands and the North-east of Scotland."

Monday, 27 February 2017

The 10th instalment of our "Orkney at War" Exhibition is now available to see upstairs on the Orkney Room corridor noticeboard.The display shows how Orkney and Orcadians were affected by the war in their daily lives, using items from the Archive collections which were created at the time. Items such as newspaper reports, scrapbooks, council minutes, photographs, letters and diaries.Here are a few items from the main exhibition:

SPHAGNUM MOSS CLEANING IN KIRKWALL

In the paper in January comes a fresh appeal for volunteers to work with Sphagnum Moss and a photograph from April 1917 to show some of the volunteers who came forward.

The fact was recently brought to the notice of the Orkney Moss Committee that the War Office was asking for more moss dressings than the various depots in Aberdeen and elsewhere could supply. It was pointed out that to send away uncleaned moss did not mend matters, and although the Aberdeen branch turns our ninety sackfulls weekly, this does not meet the requirements.

In October, a large amount of moss was gathered by the Girl Guides, Boys Brigade and Boy Scouts; and the ladies of the committee having decided to ask others to give their assistance in cleaning the quantity on hand, they were given the use of the Free Library Hall where there is ample heating and lighting arrangements. Every afternoon one may now find a "hive of busy bees" there; but the hive is not full. The most industrious can make but slow progress at cleaning, as it is essential that the smallest particle of foreign matter is cleaned away from the moss.﻿

Ref: L4830/1

There is accommodation for a large number of workers, and we appeal not only to the fair sex, for probably there are men whose days of stir and stress are past who would be glad and willing to lend a hand. It has been arranged, therefore, that any afternoon between the hours of 2 and 3, and on Saturdays from 11am to 6pm, one or two of the principal workers will be found in the hall, who will give instruction in the cleaning of the moss. Little skill, but great pains and patience required. Everyone's help is wanted! Go and do your bit!

The Orcadian, 6th January 1917

Servicemen News:

Sapper James Merriman[aged abt 30 yrs old in 1917], serving with the Canadian Engineers. He is a son of Mr James [and Anne] Merriman, Somiar, Sandwick. [Extra information from the 1901 census]

Archive Reference: D1/1127 Dr. Duncan's WW1 Scrapbook

THE HUNT FOR SUGAR
Sugar-hunting is at present one of the worries which harass the good people who are responsible for house-keeping. Many grocers are at present without white sugar, and the best they have to offer is a coarse-looking compound, almost black in colour, which customers are compelled to take in the absence of anything better. Obviously some people are getting more than their fair share of the available supplies, while a proportion is being wasted on expensive confectionary.

The Food Controller has threatened the rationing of sugar, if voluntary abstinence fails to effect a remedy. Experience has shown that more or less maudlin appeals to patriotism are ineffective where food is concerned, and if sugar tickets are to come, the sooner they are instituted the better. Then people will be supplied strictly in accordance with the number in the household.

The Orcadian 6th January 1917

Servicemen News:

Private George Stout, a Stronsayman, serving with the Seaforth Highlanders. [The 1911 Census says he was the son of fisherman John and Jane L Stout, Station, Stronsay and was aged 13, so would have been about 20 years old in 1917.]

Archive Reference: D1/1127 Dr. Duncan's WW1 Scrapbook

Margaret Tait's Diary28th Jan 1917 A New Year has come again. I wonder what luck it will bring. The weather for the last fortnight has been very fine, the roads are as dry as summer. Tomorrow Willie leaves home for Inverness. We will miss him in the house. Been out the Craigiefield road for a walk this afternoon with Bunty [the dog] and the bay was full of foreign ships. The sea was flat calm and everything looked very fine. Everything is pitch dark on the street now, at night you just jostle against everyone. The war is still raging as bad as ever and the end seems far off. Busy framing pictures for the fleet in the Flow. It would be proper dull in town now if it were not for the fleet.

FIRTH NEWS - COMFORTS FOR THE SOLDIERS AT THE FRONT During the current winter the congregation of the Parish Church has sent to the Lord Provost of Edinburgh 34 pairs of socks and 5 pairs of mittens for the soldiers at the front; and Mrs Yair, as president, has, for the same purpose, sent to London from the Finstown branch of the Y.W.C.A., 18 pairs of socks, 10 helmets, and 7 pairs of mittens.

Orkney Herald 14th February 1917

Servicemen News:

Sergeant Jack Randall, Canadian Mounted Rifles, who was officially reported missing on June 2, has now written to his relatives that he is wounded and a prisoner in Germany. Sergeant Randall is the eldest son of Mr George [and Mary] Rendall, Hestwall, Sandwick, had been at the front since the beginning of October 1915, and has been twice wounded. [The 1911 census says he was born in Evie and was 17 years old, so would have been about 23 years old in 1917. He must have changed his name when he went to Canada].

Letters to the Editor

WOUNDED ORCADIANS IN LONDON HOSPITALS

Sir, - It may be that during the great offensive which is now imminent on the western front, some of our gallant Orkney lads may be wounded and brought to hospitals in London, or in the immediate neighbourhood.

During the time they are in hospital, far from their friends and relatives, they would doubtless appreciate a visit from a friendly Orcadian.

The Committee of the Orkney and Shetland Society of London has decided to arrange for visits being made to Orkney soldiers or sailors who may be in hospital in London. The Committee accordingly will feel obliged if the parents, or other relatives or friends of these lads will communicate to me the number, rank, and name of any such soldier or sailor, together with his regiment in case of the former, and the particular hospital in which he may be under treatment, and the Committee will make arrangements whereby he will be regularly visited while in hospital, and entertained during his period of convalescence.

"No. 1153 Gunner James William Spence, No. 5 Company, R.G.A. at present in the first Scottish General Hospital, Aberdeen, is to be discharged from the Army on 18th January on account of Tuberculosis.

As his home address is given as Midhouse, Kirbuster Town, Birsay and as he is not insured under the National Insurance Act, 1911, I am directed by the Board to ask if you will take charge of the case on behalf of the Local Authority of the Mainland District and arrange with the Medical Officer of health for appropriate treatment." [Extract from the minute of the meeting held on the 3rd April 1917]

In the House of Commons on Tuesday Mr Cathcart Wason [Orkney's MP] asked the Secretary to the Admiralty if the Admiralty had commandeered the St. Ola, the mail boat between Orkney and the mainland, and if so, he would state if the Admiralty proposed seriously to leave a very important agricultural county destitute of mail service.

SS St. Ola leaving Scapa; Ref: TK403

Sir Leo Chiozza Money (Shipping Control Department) replied:- "The vessel in question has not been requisitioned. Inquiries have been made respecting her, and we are in communication with the General Post Office on the subject, which is still under consideration."

Orkney Herald 2nd May 1917

The 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th instalments are still displayed in various locations around the building and the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th instalments, including a special feature of the sinking of HMS Hampshire, are available to see in a folder in the Archive Searchroom. Click on "Orkney At War" in the labels to see more blog posts on this subject.